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The House of Lost Souls FG Cottam 9780340953877 Books

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The House of Lost Souls FG Cottam 9780340953877 Books

Overall this is a very skillfully done work.It is a pastiche of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and ALL HOLLOWS EVE,with liberal doses of THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY set in 1980's and 1990's England.If that sounds interesting this book is for you.On top of all that the author throws in Aleister Crowley and Herman Goring.Until the end I found it an intelligent effective entertainment vehicle.Granted except for the main character, the characterizations are pretty weak but I can't say I particularly cared.It is the end that bothered me.I have to admit , I don't think I understood it.It just didn't seem to add up.I think this is a problem that a lot of fiction dealing with the supernatural has .The author often can't figure out how to bring the thing to an end.In supernatural fiction you can work in blatantly unrealistic elements because after all you are dealing with the unreal almost by definition but you have to face the fact that you do have real readers who want to have some sense of what is going on. This is where the problem often creeps up.Once you start explaining the inexplicable there is a tendency to get lost or even stop making sense and I think that is a problem here.Satisfaction in this context is usually maximized by a mixture of ambiguity and explanation. The author needs to explain enough to make it clear you haven't just read an incoherent mish mash but needs to resist the temptation to have it all make sense as if it were a Hercule Poirot story.Here I had the feeling that both too little and too much were explained.That said , supernatural stories are for me what detective or crime novels are for others light entertaining reading and this is a good one.I did find it hard to put down and I admit I will try to reread the end.


Tags : The House of Lost Souls [F.G. Cottam] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Fischer House was the scene of a vicious crime in the 1920s - a crime which still resonates as the century turns. At its heart was a beautiful,F.G. Cottam,The House of Lost Souls,Hodder Paperback,034095387X,Crime & mystery,Modern fiction

The House of Lost Souls FG Cottam 9780340953877 Books Reviews

I have to agree with the bulk of the reviews on this one; I love a good haunted house story and this was so promising but I think the author really blew it with the ending (unless I just didnt get it) - I practically read the whole book again going back to sort out the many characters and whether or not some crucial bit of plot was overlooked. Amazing atmosphere and sense of dread; really interesting characters - especially the 1920s photographer - I wish he'd have given us more detail, more of her journals or back-story and more detail around the rituals of the Nazi satanists and also the mysterious student who lured the group into visiting the house. Great effort and well worth the read.
I actually read this based on a recommendation at the end of the book 'The Woman in Black' by Susan Black (which was wonderful) and was pleasantly suprised. I love a good horor book and this one was wonderfully well written and thought out. It built up until the end and ended on a very satisfying end. If you love a good ghost story especially in a similar fashiona and voice of Stephen King, Peter Straub or John Saul then I recommend not only this particular book but author as well.
The story had me from the beginning and I could not put it down. I was not scary, scary but I felt it left some of that to your imagination. As one other reviewer wrote not quite sure about the ending. I would of like more detail on what the students went through. I highly recommend this, if you like Ghost Story by Peter Straud and The Haunting of Hill House. I am looking forward to reading another book by FG Cottam.
If you've read "Hell House" or virtually any novel that features Alistair Crowley or a "diseased house", (Rose Red, The Shining) than this book will be discovered country for you. That being said, the idea of creeping, virtually indestructable evil that reaches across the decades is always disconcerting to a culture that is intent upon vanquishing it, and the evil that Cottam creates in his characters is frightening indeed. I would also say that he does a good job with a rather convoluted plot and by the end of the novel, all loose ends are tied up satisfactorily.
I would have given this rating 5 stars if the ending hadn't seemed so abrupt/disjointed from the pace of the rest of the story. The author gave plenty of descriptive pages to much more minor plot points or scenes, then rushed the climactic ending. Other than this, I did really enjoy the book and evocative creation of the atmosphere - very creepy. There were other parts that I wished had been explored more (or less), but those were valid choices by the author and simply a matter of my personal interest. I read it late one evening, which certainly heightens the atmosphere. It was enjoyable, and I would recommend it for a spooky tale for an evening.
I was referred to this book through a horror readers' forum. It sounded like the perfect creepy hanted house tale. I have to say that I wasn't impressed for the first few chapters. It moves kind of slowly and makes you wonder where this is all headed. Then, Paul Seaton, the main character, decides he'll help out his girlfrind by researching her thesis on a little known photographer whose photos are eery and hanting. He finds out she was involved with a group of Satanists and was present during a dark ritual performed at an isolated house. Of course he decides to visit the house to look for something she supposedly hid there and it's at that point that the real mystery and haunted house horror begins. Believe me, if you stick with it that far, you will be hooked and have to finish it.
What he experiences in the house ends up haunting him for more than 10 years and completely destroys the life he had. When he finally starts to regain a bit of normalcy, the spectre of the house returns and he has to face his fears to save the lives of several college students who wandered into the house and became its victims.
I was very impressed with the sense of urgency and foreboding that the author instills throughout the last half of the book. You feel as if you are in a race and have to get to the end.
So, give it a try and don't give up if it's not grabbing you right away. It will - believe me - it will!
Overall this is a very skillfully done work.It is a pastiche of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and ALL HOLLOWS EVE,with liberal doses of THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY set in 1980's and 1990's England.If that sounds interesting this book is for you.On top of all that the author throws in Aleister Crowley and Herman Goring.Until the end I found it an intelligent effective entertainment vehicle.Granted except for the main character, the characterizations are pretty weak but I can't say I particularly cared.It is the end that bothered me.I have to admit , I don't think I understood it.It just didn't seem to add up.I think this is a problem that a lot of fiction dealing with the supernatural has .The author often can't figure out how to bring the thing to an end.In supernatural fiction you can work in blatantly unrealistic elements because after all you are dealing with the unreal almost by definition but you have to face the fact that you do have real readers who want to have some sense of what is going on. This is where the problem often creeps up.Once you start explaining the inexplicable there is a tendency to get lost or even stop making sense and I think that is a problem here.Satisfaction in this context is usually maximized by a mixture of ambiguity and explanation. The author needs to explain enough to make it clear you haven't just read an incoherent mish mash but needs to resist the temptation to have it all make sense as if it were a Hercule Poirot story.Here I had the feeling that both too little and too much were explained.That said , supernatural stories are for me what detective or crime novels are for others light entertaining reading and this is a good one.I did find it hard to put down and I admit I will try to reread the end.